Losing a Pet :(

This has been a pretty rough week. As my spring break was coming down to an end, and after I had only been back home one day after a trip to Chicago, I was awoken in the middle of the night by one of my cats, Bailey, throwing up. Yuck, but it's not really out of the ordinary for him and I figured he might be needing to cough up a hairball or something. But after waking up the next morning, I noticed that he was just not acting normal. He wasn't walking around, he meowed really loudly when I came over to pet him, and he wouldn't eat or drink, even after I brought food and water to him. I started to get really worried that he might get dehydrated, so I gave him some water with a turkey baster. And he threw up again! By this time I realized it was time to get him to the vet ASAP.

Well, unfortunately, the trip to the vet did not go well at all. The vet said that a bladder infection he had back in November was back again, but this time it had completely blocked any function, and that the prognosis was not good, even if he were to be hospitalized. So, I had to make the tough decision to put him out of his misery and have him put down. Of course, with Dustin deployed, I wasn't able to contact him to really let him know what was happening until it was all over, and I was a crying mess as I left Petsmart.

I spent much of this week looking through old pictures and videos of Bailey, and lavishing attention on my other cat, Colby, as I think he is still pretty confused as to where his buddy is. I will never forget the day Dustin and I brought Bailey home from the Gainesville Pet Rescue and how excited we were to have a kitty! I really wish I would have had more years with my sweet kitty (he was almost 3), but I sure will cherish the memories I had with our first pet.